Monetising the web’s X-Factor designers

Today, I finally saw the thing I ‘d never really considered possible a couple of years ago. A service called UFeedMeBack being sold basically on the back of celebrity web designers which apparently offers feedback on your designs from, well, “celebrity designers”.

It’s nice visually but doesn’t give much away beyond the big names.

It’s something that’s been troubling me over the last couple of years and I know a few others who are talking along similar lines regarding the “celebrity designer” and their influence over the industry.

You know the ones, who in all fairness are there because over the years they’ve put out solid work or are recent influencers but they’re names you’ll know with backgrounds most of us will be familiar with. On the surface what’s strange is this site seems to have spawned from nowhere, with little mention on the day of launch from anyone other than a couple of the “feedbackers” and has currently got little in the way of transparent information about exactly what you get from the rockstars of modern day web design.

I’m providing my feedback in blog form after a discussion on Twitter with @ufeedmeback so while I appreciate this post may be a little two pronged and sound harsh, it might be a case of poor initial design / message that’s causing my bad gut feeling about this service and the use of celebrity designers to pull in business.

Big names, but little credibility

As I mentioned, there are household names in the web industry such as Andy Budd, Andy Rutledge, Yaron Schoen and a personal favourite of mine, Matthew Smith but apart from a couple of tweets I’ve seen nothing about this service and it just strikes me as plain weird that so many people being involved in such a service wouldn’t give it a few tweets on beta launch day. I may have missed something here but the design community is small on Twitter and I’m amazed there’s not been more talk.

Credibility and openness as we all know plays a massive part of getting customers to sign up for and pay for a service online. This site to me currently has none other than the masthead big names. I can only assume they’ve had no input in the design and setup of the site because without examples of feedback and an idea of cost (I’ll come to this) it’s difficult to get any sort of idea what you actually get. The USP seems to be based very much around celebrity designers looking at your screenshots and saying their bit.

What does feedback look like?

As I mentioned earlier, one of the main things that concerns me about many public sharing systems like this is that often the people feeding back into a visual are doing just that. Unless the person asking for feedback goes into epic project detail about the problem they’re trying to solve then you’re just judging a visual out of context and with little information.

When you look at an inspiring gallery or attractive website, remember that what you’re seeing is merely the result, not the process.

UFeedMeBack doesn’t seem to do anything to give example feedback that has been given and although it offers a description field to accompany the screenshot upload, it seems likely that the small size of the input area would lead us to expect a few simple lines to accompany the screenshot. I’d be amazed (but happy) if the feedback on a design consisted of more than a few sentences that dealt largely with aesthetics. Again though, unfortunately the site itself doesn’t give much to go on so perhaps this is an area to improve on quickly for them.

How much does it actually cost then?

That’s the interesting bit, apparently at the time of launch, @jbrewer isn’t available to comment on any user uploads. A couple of the feedbackers don’t seem to have set their rate (or are offering free feedback?) and most of the others are charged at $15 with Andy Rutledge being the most expensive I saw at $40.

I guess here we reach the point where you think that after paying your $1 to upload a screenshot, selecting design heroes Matthew Smith, Andy Rutledge, Tyler Galpin and Andy Budd for some UX feedback, I’m looking at the thick end of $75 to get some feedback which, unless I upload or paste in a full project outline or scope is going to be feedback based purely on a visual. It’s perhaps not the of the world to get some advice on colour choices or my typography but I could get that on Forrst which has a fuller (free) community.

Does the feedback cover a single round of ammends or would you come back and ask for more for your $15 (or $40) a person once you’ve implemented feedback? Again, it’s unfortunately not that clear at this time.

How much of their time can I expect?

I’ve been in the industry several years and have a reasonable idea of what a top end designer like some of the guys mentioned here can expect to quote if they’re working freelance or as part of their agency day rate. It’s a lot. I don’t begrudge that, I do enjoy seeing their work and hearing them talk but again the site does little to dispel my nagging doubt as to how much time someone getting paid $10 for some feedback (I assume UFeedMeBack takes a cut?) is going to put into reviewing my project outline and then my visual in order to improve it. Again, this could be relatively easily satisfied with some example reviews and follow up on the site.

“X-Factorisation”

The current design and model of this site does on the surface appear to be the first real effort to cash in on providing a service that already exists (things like Forrrst) but adding celebrity names into the mix.

I’m curious given some of the feelings I’ve outlined above with regard to transparency and credibility to know if the designers giving feedback are actively involved in the site itself or if they are being sent a notification to look at a design then getting paid?

It’s a strange beast, visually the site ticks many boxes but for me the lack of a pricing structure for the feedbackers is a big thing and the lack of any examples of feedback given so far makes it a tough one to subscribe to.

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The idea, I suppose, is quite a good one, except I think you’d be able to find suitably talented peers who would be willing to provide good feedback for free, and possibly in more detail than you’d receive from this.

In an industry which usually prides itself on not paying for stuff – from CMS software, ecommerce software and even graphic design software, it’s a “hard sell”!

I’m not against paying for things as I’m sure many designers aren’t because while there’s a lot of good free stuff out there as a profession I’ve always found designers/developers more than willing to financially support quality services but the crux of my feedback is not necessarily the pricing (which should be up front) but the lack of examples of what can be expected and exactly how the feedback from the celebrity designers will help you solve your clients problems in the design.

I do hope something is clarified in a design/content tweak as I’m surprised so many established designers would put their names to this product in light of what I’d have thought were some fairly design trust issues.

This service has actually been up and running for many months, after we got an email asking if we would like to be involved in a feedback service. I have no problem offering free feedback, I am and have been part of “Please Critique Me” which is a website doing the exact same thing, for free. I would have had a problem had the price for critique been high, but to me, what I receive for my critique is enough to buy a Starbucks coffee and a biscuit, no one is going to get rich from this site, but what it does do, by charging, in my opinion, is to separate serious people seeking feedback, from the non, otherwise the flood gates open. We shouldn’t be chastising the business model, at the end of the day, they provide a service, just like any other service and it’s u to the general public if they use that service or not – many of the people listed on the site provide consultancy services for a much higher rate than is being charged on the site, however, you don’t see this being scrutinised in blog posts?

I really don’t like the way you’ve made this blog post more about the people involved than the service. If you don’t agree with the service, that’s fine – but if you don’t agree with people being paid, a very small amount of money, to provide a service then that’s an entirely different argument that spans into a much larger issue. I’m not saying the service isn’t without faults, I’m not saying what the feed backers provide is gold, but it is a service and no one is forcing anyone to buy it.

The post is about the people involved because quite simply that’s how the site is marketed. The message and tone of the site is all about the names attached otherwise what you would have is a simple feedback system of which you already mention, there are many free versions.

I don’t think my feedback on the site in the post is unduly harsh because as I mentioned it could cost a designer $70-$100 for feedback on a visual if they want 5 of the “feedbackers” where they currently have no point of reference on the site for the depth of review and there’s little information (partly the fault of the site design for not giving better examples perhaps) to give examples of how much of brief or scope should be supplied to the feedbackers and how much time you then spend analysing it in order to provide relevant feedback that I would hope goes beyond the “that’s a nice nav gradient” that you unfortunately see given as feedback on other sites.

If you are providing free feedback in exchange for a few coffees then kudos to you for spending the time to read briefs and analyse and help solve problems. Unfortunately the site really doesn’t make that clear at all hence my feedback post.

Simply because you’re being paid a small amount of money per transaction is irrelevant. Depending on the amount of people who buy into the celebrity designer feedback model (and with the combined Twitter followings into the hundreds of thousands), it’s not hard to see this service turning into a nice sideline that buys more than the occasional coffee hence my reservations and feelings about what the service actually offers the designers who are paying because the two key things are hidden away from sight. Price and examples.

I agree that there is possibly a limit to the benefit of a design review where the reviewer doesn’t know the specific problems that are being solved with a piece of design – however at the same time an experienced designer can soon provide valuable feedback on aesthetics, typography and a whole host of other issues. If you’re working alone on something then this second pair of eyes from somebody you feel you can trust based on their experience is pretty valuable.

But – and there is always a but.

I don’t think the references to ‘celebrity web designers’ both in this post and elsewhere (Twitter etc) are really very well considered or particularly helpful. Certainly some web designers are better known than others because they have written books, key blog posts, talked at conferences etc or have produced particularly impressive or effective pieces of client work.

That doesn’t make them a ‘celebrity’ – in fact I’d consider that term of reference to be somewhat degrading when you consider the wider impact of D-list celebrity culture that permeates every other area of British culture. I’m sure you didn’t intend it that way – but others who use that term certainly do.

Whether the service will be a success or not is anybody’s guess – it doesn’t have the hallmarks of a money spinner for me – but this whole ‘celebrity web designer’ thing is getting a bit tiresome.